Malignant episode 2!! This one was the culmination of my laptop exploding, finals week, at least 3 recording sessions going by, several hours lost to playing Minecraft, my lovely orange cat, and many, many hours of sleep I will not get back. This is probably the highest point of the series, tone-wise!! It's all downhill from here <3
Hi there!! I've got my first episode of Malignant SMP out! Malignant is a fan VSMP server, put together by AstoriaGalaxy, conceptualized by Rachie Crown, and hosted by Floracica! Myself, and a few others are recording our playthroughs, so I figured I'd try my hand at putting out a video!
This has been in my drafts for months and I've been working to get it done the past week or so, and oh my goodness. It's. It's something. It sure is.
10.7k words!! Help.
Please read the tags lmao <3
https://archiveofourown.org/works/82770096
The title of this in my heart is "This is not Bloodletting, it's Bloodloss because they both lose."
This fic about two guys arguing for 10k words goes out to my horrible roommates who argue for hours on end right outside my door. I am a machine that turns misery into whatever the hell this is.
My character for Malignant SMP!! She's doing her absolute best. Which is to say: poorly.
My sketch that took about 15 minutes vs the sketch that took probably 7 hours lol
Beatrice Wren! She's a bit of an odd one, jumpy, curious, and entirely out of her depth in the mysterious ruins of Briarshore. We'll see if she can make it out alive.
...if Owen wins the umcyt sexyman poll, I will have my horrible horrible Bloodletting fic out before I go back to school. It haunts me, it vexes me, it needs so many goddamn tags, but if Owen wins this poll, I will put it out there.
Snippet. It haunts me. Why are they like this
I have been struggling with this fic for like a month and a half lol, I told myself I'd be done with it weeks ago. Go vote!
New fic! I am still in the vsmp trenches. This was written for the MCYT Alphabet Challenge!! My prompt was E for Ending, and that somehow led me here lol. Post-canon Apo centric fic <3
I'm back! I've got another traffic teams post- oh. Oh shit I LOST the vampires WHERE did they go-
I'm a chronic rambler, so there's another, longer version of this guy under the cut that's been split into segments lol, otherwise it'd be unreadable. I'm back on my bullshit! There's some explainations and drabbles below too if you're interested!
v!Scott, Scar, and Tango
Ancient vampire Scott, wayyyy in over his head Scar, and Tango. Who is just here. Are so fun to me. Tango is not equipped for this, why are we debating the morality of keeping living human people as blood banks. He did not sign up for this. Scott is actively in Scar's lap, drinking his blood, and Tango did not sign up for this. Where is he. Can he go home. What the hell even. Scott's having a great time. He thinks he might keep both of these mortals. This is great. Scar definitely ends up turned by the end of this. Turned, or killed. Tango, by nature of Holy Shit New Decked Out Skin, I feel also might need to be turned. Oh dear.
Joel and Scott
Joel shows up in this new life game and suddenly there's not just one Scott, but two of them. And this new one somehow gets on his nerves significantly faster than the other one. Enter vampire hunter Joel. This is very fun to me. He's going to stake that man if it kills him. Borderline feral vampire hunter Joel. Especially towards his red life, he is a WILD man. Scott is just here for the ride. Joel starts off kinda trying to kill both him, and his vampire counterpart, but uh. Joel tunnel-visions pretty quickly down the vampire hunter path. Scott picks a bit of it up too, and it's just Scott and Joel snarking at each other while Pyro or someone just kinda stands there. They're not the most productive vampire hunters. I do think Joel makes it pretty far into the game, and I don't think v!Scott would kill him. He's too entertaining. But Joel buddyyyyy, you're doomed. I do think he'd kill life!Scott once the novelty of having another version of himself faded. Why would he want anything around that reminded him of his time as a mortal? Eugh.
v!Cleo and Pearl
v!Cleo grabs the wrong Pearl at the start of the game. They're a bit disoriented after blinking and suddenly finding themselves standing in a circle of familiar faces and not. Faces they knew and faces they'd last seen dead. So, sue them, why would they expect there to be more than one version of PearlescentMoon?? She does find herself rather liking this one as well though. She has the same charm as her Pearl, the same tenacity, not quite the same grit, but a similar bite, even if this one lacks fangs. v!Cleo might keep life!Pearl, if they get out of this alive. She could have two. Two Pearls. <3 Life!Pearl is very confused but- human Cleo?? Or- oh. Oh not she's not human. She's not human at all. Still undead, but... Cleo's eyes are red, and her smile is full of sharp, wicked teeth. Once the endgame comes around, Pearl doesn't feel the need to don her scarlet hood when her eyes turn red. Not when she has Cleo standing with her, fangs and claws and a way out. Maybe life!Pearl can escape this pattern of hunter and prey after all.
Legundo and Cleo
Legundo does not know what to do with Cleo. First of all- this is not his Cleo. His Cleo- while not alive, in the traditional sense, or at all, she certainly isn't this... undead. This Cleo, she's a zombie. Rotting, dead. There isn't another way to say it, they're the same face, but made up of patchwork skin and an eye stitched shut and a bitter smile of jagged teeth. Her heart does not beat. Legs... he can't fix that. She's a medical impossibility, and she's proud of it. Sentient and undead, a walking corpse... he can't fix that. What the hell is going on? Cleo, on the other hand, is faced with this horrific state of a man- this guy is not okay. Like oh gods, whatever is going on up there, they have absolutely no chance of doing anything about that. They aren't touching that with a ten foot pole. Uh. What the hell is wrong with you, Doctor? They do get along pretty well though, life!Cleo's snark and pessimism vibes very easily with Legs' doomed outlook on... everything. They snark together. They aren't even gonna try to touch on each other's issues. Nope. Not happening. They do get along great though.
"I won't hurt him, Cleo!"
"What do mean you aren't going to hurt him-" Cleo growled, flicking their hand to summon their sword from their inventory. "-he's literally trying to kill you!" They ducked between Legundo and the strange, younger, wide-eyed version of Martyn, with his dark tattered clothes and his shaky sword arm, and threw their blade into the hilt of Not-Martyn's sword, knocking it out of his hand.
"I am a doctor!" Legundo scowled, stumbling back. "I took an oath, Cleo, I am not breaking it now!"
"An oath-" Cleo groaned, spinning on their heel as Martyn- the Martyn they recognized, blurred memories of previous games stirring in their mind- picked up Not-Martyn's iron sword and charged them, a wicked grin on his face. "We're in a death game, Legs! You can't have an oath, you're-" They caught Martyn's blow with a grunt, and parried the blade. "-you're going to die, Legs!"
"If that is the case, so be it." Legundo said firmly. He shot an odd glance towards Not-Martyn, who had stumbled back to watch the fight, something caught between awe and fear in his eyes.
"You," Cleo spat, ducked beneath the swing of Martyn's sword. "Are an absolute fool."
"I'm not hurting anyone else." Legs replied, a resolute, but resigned tone to his voice. Cleo rolled their eyes, swung at Martyn, and reared back to kick him in the chest, the moment she saw her chance. He hit the ground hard.
"You're an idiot." She snapped. "And I'm not a good enough fighter to keep us both alive."
"Cleo-" Legs began.
"You don't have to hurt them to swing a sword at them." She continued dryly, smacking Martyn with the flat of her blade as he clambered back to his feet, illustrating her point.
"Ow..." Martyn huffed, rubbing his arm.
"Oh, shut up." Cleo scoffed. "You're fine. Neither of us can kill the other anyway, unless you want to break the rules."
"Oh, I'm not worried about the rules." Martyn chuckled, green eyes glinting as he dusted himself off, and banished his sword to his inventory. "Have you seen the state of the game? This isn't normal. I can't imagine anything is going to go the way it should. Besides, our dear whistleblower is too preoccupied with trying figure out what happened to really keep an eye on you and me."
"Martyn." Cleo narrowed their eyes. "If you kill me, I am going to kill myself again just so I can go red and beat the shit out of you." Legs let out a startled laugh at that. Cleo crossed their arms. "Or, I'll go find vampire me, and then there might be two of that to worry about."
"Hey!" Martyn laughed, palms up. "Well we wouldn't want that!"
"We really wouldn't want that." Not-Martyn frowned, slipping beside his counterpart, falling next to him like a shadow.
"No." Legundo murmured. "We would not."
Life!Cleo and Legs are an interesting duo. "Do no harm" vs "Do me a favor and die for me". Very fun, they're giving me thoughts.
Abolish, Bdubs, Skizz, and Ren
Abolish... Abolish I'm so sorry. I surrounding him with extroverts. The extroverts. Abolish... good luck. You don't deserve this. I am so sorry. I do think that Abolish and Bdubs might get on well, in a vacuum. But with Skizz and Ren thrown in... yeah. Abolish figures out the life system pretty early on- all the non-vampire players are given three lives, this being all the humans up to episode seven- and is basically just counting the days before he can kill something. He is disgustingly capable next to Skizz, Ren, and Bdubs, oh good god. Abolish I am so sorry. Like, one on one, they all try to get to know him. Skizz tries to peel back some of his layers, relate to him, Ren tries to get Abolish involved, which more often then not leads to something like Ren having a standoff with someone, and the grabbing Abolish by the arm and pledging to outlive the entire server- Abolish doesn't know what this guy's on. Bdubs actually does just recognize that they can just exist, calmly. Bdubs and Abolish do a lot of tasks and busy work together, they vibe pretty easily. But then Skizz comes by and riles Bdubs up and Abolish genuinely does not know how he got here. He doesn't... dislike any of them. They're all fun in their own way, and he doesn't see this group falling about any time soon, but like he is very aware that he is their adopted introvert and he is absolutely about to zone out through another one of Skizz's rants about Impulse and apparently Owen.
"Oh."
Abolish looked up at the sound of a man's voice, slowly, evenly peeling his gaze from the axe handle he had been carving for Ren, knife still gripped in his throwing arm and-
He met the strange, mismatched eyes of a man, halfway through their window. One eye was green-life green, and the other was black as void, both trained on him. He was lanky, but wrapped in wiry, thready muscle, made clear by the way he supported himself in the open window, nearly dangling out of it.
"Hey." The man blinked owlishly. He was covered in thick, heavy clothing, his mouth and nose covered by a mask, face framed by long, loose white hair.
"Hello there." Abolish rumbled. He set down the axe handle. He did not set down his knife. "I don't believe we've met."
"I don't think, uh." The man shook his head. "We haven't. I'm Etho." He clambered the rest of the way through the window, and slid down the wall with an odd sort of grace, landing in a low crouch on the floor that Bdubs had so furiously ensured had a solid, stone foundation before they laid planks on it. Clearly the man was a builder of some kind before he ended up... here. Wherever they were.
The man, Etho, stood, and when he found his full height, Abolish found himself tilting his chin higher than he expected.
"My name is Abolish." He replied. Carefully, obviously, he set the knife down on the table he had been working at. He felt Etho's eyes on his hand as he did it. He held out that hand to shake.
After a moment's pause, Etho took it.
"Hi, Abolish." Etho nodded. A loose strand of hair fell into his eyes. The rest of it pooled at his shoulders, coiling against his hood. White hair. Curious. "You live with Bdubs, right?" He asked suddenly.
"Oh?" Abolish blinked up at him. "I do. Do you need him?"
"I wanted to talk to him. Catch up a bit, y'know." Etho replied, eyes darting around the room. "Nice place you got here."
"Thanks." Abolish said absently. Etho was still holding his hand. The man wore gloves, the thick, padded kind, meant for much colder weather than he had ever known. "Bdubs left with Skizz about an hour ago." Abolish informed. "I'm fairly sure they went mining."
"Oh. Okay." Etho shrugged to himself. He blinked, then suddenly pulled his hand out of Abolish's, as if he had forgotten it was there. "Sorry to bother you, Abolish. I was hoping he'd be here."
"It's no problem-" Abolish began, but Etho was already slipping out the door, and suddenly he was gone. Like he was never there to begin with. "Oh." Abolish breathed. "And he's gone." He sighed. He let his gaze linger on the door for a moment, brows furrowed. What did he want with Bdubs...?
He shook his eyes from the door, and picked up his knife again, studying the axe handle. It was still too big to be easily gripped, not narrow enough, not smooth enough. He should finish it before Ren got back from... whatever he had set off to do.
Etho, however...
What a curious man.
Martyn and v!Martyn
Be warned it was pretty late when I wrote this, and I might've started losing the plot a bit lol
Martynnnn. Life!Martyn, and v!Martyn. Now, I do think that v!Martyn would have a healthy dose of fear towards life!Martyn. We do not know much about v!Martyn, but we do know that he lied. He lied about his background, his life, himself. The way I figure it, he lied to get by, he lied to survive. He lied to make coin, for the clothes on his back, so he could eat. He would lie until he couldn't anymore, and had to run off and start fresh, with a new face, a new reputation. We really don't know that much about him. The people he knew didn't know much about him, and hell, the man that died with him knew as much about him as we did. He had more lies to go around than he did truth. He was a man made to be forgotten, with no foundation, no roots, and nothing of substance behind his words. But that's where life!Martyn comes in. Becayse life!Martyn also lies. He also cheats, and steals, and smiles away the truth. He never claimed to be a saint, and sure is not going to act like one. However, life!Martyn isn't just lying to survive. He lies, because that's how he plays the game, because he understands the social climate around him, and he often plays like he has nothing to lose. v!Martyn? He's afraid. He's afraid to not lie, he's afraid to make something of himself that he can't just wipe away, twist to suit his needs. He's scared of permanence, the breaking point of performance. He's survived for so long on his words and his wit... but then here comes... him. This is him... but he isn't afraid. He's not afraid of trust- because trust is a weapon- he's not afraid of death- because he knows there are fates worse than death, and he's stared that in the face- he's not... controlled by these things that cage v!Martyn. Instead he's wily, he's wild, he's a mesh of truth and lies and no second guesses and mistakes twisted into purpose. He doesn't stop for anything. Here is this version of himself that is nothing like him, even when he is so, so similar. Here's a version of himself who has no reason to lie, but does it so well. v!Martyn is afraid of life!Martyn, because here is a man with his face, a face he had rewritten so many times, who could not be forgotten. Who could not be rewritten, despite the lies, despite the smiles, despite the snaking network of trust and fallacy that seemed to rule his life. Despite all of that, he sells himself up, he doesn't sink into the background, he doesn't falter.
And why couldn't he have that?
"Perhaps it isn't fear-" Although he did fear his propensity for bloodshed. He thought that part was fairly rational. "...maybe I'm jealous, then."
"Maybe you are." Legs replied. "And maybe he's had more time than you were ever afforded, Martyn. Maybe he couldn't run off and make a new identity, and start all over again." Legs sighed, pinning Martyn with a critical eye. "Maybe he exists, how you've put it, because he has to. Because there's nowhere to go."
"I can't run off anymore." Martyn chuckled dryly. "There's nowhere to go" He echoed. He stared past Legs, to where he sat, beside the odd, decaying, corpse-like version of Cleo. He was older, a bit broader, the troughs beneth his eyes a bit deeper. He had a odd, diamond point scar down his face, and another just below his collar. His hair was longer, darker. He...
"He has lived a very different life from you, Martyn." Legundo said evenly, lowly. "You cannot hold yourself to him when there is so little to compare."
"But he's me, Doc." Martyn pressed. He bit the inside of his cheek. "What else am I meant to do than compare myself to him?"
Lizzie, Apo, and Drift
Lizzie, Apo, and Drift!! On a much more lighthearted note, the three of them get completely lost in the woods. Apo has no idea what's going on. Drift is having a great time. Lizzie has lost two lives in the span of a week and has suddenly realized that her traveling compainions/Missing Persons Statistics Buddies are not human, and do not actual have lives to lose.
"What?!" Apo yelped. "No- no. No, we're human. We're human I promise."
"Uh-huhhhh." Lizzie squinted up at them. She knew her own eyes to be red from, well. A cave related death, and... last night. She had gone to bed a yellow life, and had woken up a red life, her throat aching, her fingertips numb and cold, her shirt stained through with blood. She assumed something must have gotten to her at night, and she somehow slept through the respawn process. Maybe a stray skeleton had shot her throat the neck. Maybe. Either way, "You and Drifty, neither of you have slept this whole time. You think I haven't noticed, but I did." She held up a triumphant, accusing finger. "I know exactly what you two have been up to!"
"You do?" Drift raised her brows, her head tilted curiously. "Man, I really did think you were out."
"Drift!" Apo hissed. "Of course we sleep! We sleep every night!"
"I mean, not every night." Drift frowned. "I've been getting some pretty bad insomnia lately, y'know?"
"Drift!"
"You two are something." Lizzie affirmed. "I know that for certain, you two are something and it is not human."
"You don't know that for sure." Drift ducked her head. "I mean, maybe, but how do we know that you're human?"
"I, have died." Lizzie declared.
"We know." Apo murmured miserably.
"I've died, and now I'm on my last life."
"Your what-"
"And now," Lizzie continued. "I'm a red-life. My eyes are red. I have a little bit of bloodthirst in the back of my brain too."
"What are you talking about?" Apo hissed.
"But- you two have had red eyes this whole time!" Lizzie proclaimed, pointing at her temple. "I know neither of you have died, I've been with you both since the game started, unless there's a mechanic I don't know about." She crossed her arms, glancing between Drift, who seemed to be considering something, and Apo, who seemed to be considering having a nervous breakdown.
"So, uh. Lizzie." Drift spoke up, a nervous smile on her face. Her lips parted into a wavering grin, and there was something... off about it. Almost like- "We're vampires-"
Oh.
"NO WE AREN'T." Apo yelped frantically.
I do think Lizzie ends up being turned, probably to save her life to be honest. She's very onboard with killing v!Scott. Incredibly. In fact, she makes a very bloodthirsty vampire. Vampire Lizzie <33. Apo and Drift absolutely fed on her at some point, and did accidentally kill her. Which, there goes Lizzie's yellow life. Whoops. Vampire trio though, they wreck so much shit. You know once they find their way out of the woods. I love them.
Gem and v!Pearl
Gem! Gem saw Cleo- not Cleo, but a vampiric woman with long, white hair- grab Pearl by the hand once they game started, and then they both completely dissappeared, like they were never here to begin with. And then Gem saw Not-Pearl. She was very clearly Pearl, but... not her Pearl. However, v!Pearl fits Gem's idea of Pearl, of the Pearl she's heard of for so long, of Scarlet Pearl, of the bloodthirsty, vengeance, weapon Pearl, more than life!Pearl does. In fact, v!Pearl... is that idea, for a little bit. v!Pearl's hands are not clean. She doesn't work well with Gem, and yet they fit. Instead, she's competitive, she teases, she chases, she nips at her heels. She... Gem likes this side of Pearl. Gem really likes this. She's having fun, she's challenging Pearl back, she's playful to the edge of pain, and she is a force of nature-
She's a wolf.
Pearl's a wolf, that is a wolf, standing a head taller than Gem, her maw at eye level, her claws the length of Gem's hands-
Where Pearl had been standing, a crudely crafted sword in her hands, Ren and Skizz behind her, eyes glinting red- was a beast.
Pearl met Gem's eyes, those were her eyes. Those were Pearl's eyes, yellow-life gold, angled just so, just enough to be familiar, despite their place on a wolf's face.
She wasn't even a wolf was she? She was something other, something massive and powerful and wholly unearthly.
Gem met Pearl's eyes. She nodded, once. Tight, certain.
And then Pearl flung herself around, and she lunged.
And Gem watched her tear Skizz and Ren apart.
Gem. Gem no. Gem Pearl is taken. Gem-
At the end of this, regardless of Gem's feelings on the matter, v!Cleo is coming back for v!Pearl, and at this point, life!Pearl is going too. Gem may or may not have a choice. v!Pearl is absolutely stealing her. Gem thinks that she's going to keep v!Pearl, but no. v!Pearl is keeping her. Possible werewolf Gem. Godspeed my queen.
Avid, Jimmy, and Pyro
I'm actually enjoying the Jimmy-Avid-Pyro team so much, I think they're doomed. Like Doomed doomed. I think Jimmy and Avid's combined absurdity would keep Pyro from the edge Just Long enough for them to make it past like, day one, but then someone's killing someone. I'm not sure who. But someone is dying here. I think Jimmy might Just be able to keep Pyro from killing someone, just Barely. That someone would likely be Avid. But I think there's an equal chance Avid and Pyro put aside their differences in the shared interest of food, and kill Jimmy. If they turn him/if he survives, I do think Pyro and Avid very quickly fall down the "huh, this person is kind of nice to me, let me dedicate my entire reason for being to them" pipeline and yeah... this might be a Scott situation. One the bright side, we get the three most pathetic vampires known to mankind. Someone get Jimmy out of there.
"I'M NOT DEAD?!"
"What?" Pyro blinked. He sat up. He turned. He saw Avid. "What?" He said again. He closed his eyes. He grabbed his head with both hands. He remembered staking Avid. He remembered... Owen had held him down, he had... done the deed. He- Pyro opened his eyes again. Avid stared back at him, with wide, wide, incredulous eyes, still red, and vampiric, still undead, still here. "WHAT?" Pyro spat.
"WHY AM I NOT DEAD?" Avid screeched. "YOU KILLED ME. PYRO YOU KILLED ME-"
"I DID KILL YOU." Pyro yelped. "YOU SHOULD BE DEAD."
"I SHOULD BE DEAD." Avid shouted with a nervous, cascading laugh, like light on the edge of glass. He stared at Pyro for a moment. His eyes felt penetrating... like judgement. Like sin. And then he started screaming again. "PYROSCYTHE-"
They're fine. Probably.
Owen, Impulse, and Etho
Owen, Impulse, and Etho. Oh dear. Okay, I do think Impulse and Etho could like, passively make Owen better. Not good, I'm not sure how much they could really help, but I do feel like they have they vibes to allow him some peace, some breathing room. Now, Impulse, I do feel like could be a sort of support figure that he hasn't really ever had. Just someone to lean on, someone to trust, if Owen would let himself. Etho, on the other hand, is incredibly spooked by the whole vampires. Appearing. Thing. And is just being a menace in response. Etho is allowing Owen absolutely peace. It's all mostly light-hearted, but that man is such a threat to Owen's peace of mind.
"Etho!" Owen called.
"Yeah?" Etho's voice zephyred back.
"Etho, I'm going to kill myself right here and now if you do not put my fucking shield back together."
"...wellllll-"
"ETHO."
Etho will not give Owen peace. Hell no. I need you to picture Etho hiding behind Impulse while Owen hisses like a feral cat over Impulse's shoulder, like he does Not want Impulse in the crossfire but also he's going to claw out Etho's only good eye if it kills him. Etho and Impulse have also, somehow- they don't know how they did it, do not ask them- given Owen just. A safe space to be vulnerable. Depsite. Death game. To be fair, Owen's bar for safe space is criminally low, but they have been able to sorta open up with him.
But like Owen also totally could just kill them both. That could happen. We'll see-
Sausage, Mumbo, and BigB
Sausage is thrilled, he's found a vampire! Maybe even two! Mumbo is for sure a vampire. He's got the pale skin, and the reddish eyes and the fangs for it. And this guy, BigB, knows so much about vampires, he's almost encyclopedic! And he knows a bit too much, if you know what I mean, like. It's a bit suspicious. There is no way he isn't a vampire too, y'know? So two vampires! He and Mumbo have been great! BigB has been answering all of Sausage's questions, and really helping him out here- and it's so nice to watch him watch out for Mumbo, like, vampires need to stick together, and it's so nice to see that's possible without intimidation and murder and violence and Scott Smajor, you know? Sausage is so excited, he's learning so much! This is all going in his next few books.
Mumbo K. Jumbo is not a vampire. Neither is BigB. BigB is lying his ass off and having a great time doing it. Mumbo K. Jumbo is having a terrible time he is not a vampire, and SOMEHOW, BigB has convinced an actual vampire that he is one. This is bad. This is so bad. BigB. BigB I swear to god.
Sausage is writing gay vampire romance novels about these two human men as we speak. World's number one Mumstatz shipper. He found his muse. Mumbo Jumbo is going to strangle BigBstatz. Life is beautiful.
Shelby, Grian, and v!Ren
Grian is. Worried.
He just doesn't know how this happened. Somehow- somehow, an entire other server, collided with his server. Not just the server, but that server from a past point in time, because Cleo and Pearl and Ren finished vampires weeks ago, and yet there was a disconcertingly human looking Ren staring down at him with furrowed brows as he flicked through the admin console, trying to find the point in time when the Vampires server would've touched down on the life server. Because there had to be something, there had to be some kind of explaination, right?
Shelby, on the other hand, is having a great time. She's not sure where the coven ended up, or really what happened... the details are... fuzzy. Her chest hurts. She's really pissed at Pyro for some reason she can't discern. But... she's here, with this strange man in strange clothes who she's beginning to think might have some eldritch ties, based on the magic pannels he keeps summoning, and the small, purple-ish eyes flitting through his hair. Ren's also here. She's still got him pegged for werewolf, to be honest. There's just something about him. Hmmmmm. She has a lot to think about.
Shelby has asked Grian if he's some kind of eldritch thing or other more than once, and at first he said no, but he's started questioning if be can actually say no to that. Like... well. Isn't he? Is he? Like, he put down the admin console and had to just. Think for a moment. Like. What qualifies that sort of thing-
v!Ren has no idea what is going on. He was in Oakhurst last night, don'tcha know... but he's awoke in this wilderness, with some faces familiar, but others...
"What did ya' say yer' name was again, laddie?"
"Grian." The man replied absently, attention still drawn to that strange, glass-like panel he had summoned.
"Ah, just that?" Ren inquired. "I'm Renhardt, although ya seemed to 'ave known that I go by Ren already."
Grian hummed in acknowledgement, but otherwise didn't respond, enraptured by the panel in his hands. Miss Shelby had wandered off to find something to sate her... thirst not long ago, leaving just Ren and Grian in their small encampment.
Ren peered a little closer at the man. He was of smaller stature, with a pair of glasses and a mess of dirty blond hair framing his face. He had dark eyes, tight with focus as he scrolled through his odd, frankly magical tablet. Ren had learned a bit too much about the supernatural over the past few weeks. He wasn't quite keen on getting on a witch's bad side, if that was what the lad was. There had to be something to explain the tablet. Miss Shelby had passed on whispered theories of things too old and too vast for man's eyes, but that wasn't exactly useful information, or much past speculation at all.
Ren found his gaze slipping past the man and his curious tablet. Past their camp, past their meager supplies and the scrubby trees around them. Past the horizon.
He saw a wall there. Stretching past the sky, and tethered deep, deep into the earth. Made of shifting sky and wavering reality, and... Ren was beginning to think that it meant they were trapped.
I think the firelocke dynamic can absolutely be "guy who despises paperwork" and "guy who studies paperwork and records". Abolish trying to fill out his very confidential supernatural paperwork and Pyro is so damn curious. Please? Please can he see? Please-
...if Owen wins the umcyt sexyman poll, I will have my horrible horrible Bloodletting fic out before I go back to school. It haunts me, it vexes me, it needs so many goddamn tags, but if Owen wins this poll, I will put it out there.
Snippet. It haunts me. Why are they like this
I have been struggling with this fic for like a month and a half lol, I told myself I'd be done with it weeks ago. Go vote!